Playing with Fire: the Creative Spark of Songwriting

Six-week practical & communal songwriting experience

July 11-August 15th

Weekly live zoom calls: Monday 6-8:30pm

Informal Writing sessions weekly, times TBD

Price $60-800

This six week course will bring us deep into the source of our songs: our own subjective experiences, real and imaginary. As songwriters, how do we play with the past and let it burn? How empowering does it feel when any stray thought becomes enough to ignite a whole song? We’ll experience carefully constructing a fire and enthusiastically rubbing two sticks together, and – using improvisation – experience what it’s like to set light to logs covered in gasoline.

Above all, we’ll practice surrendering to the magic of the creative channel and trusting what becomes ash.

This course will guide you into trust with the portals of songwriting: connection to the form (voice, instrument, lyric) and our Selves (body, feelings, thoughts). In improvising, we allow inspiration to guide us into awareness of one or more of those portals, and then to nurture and be nurtured by that experience.

This offering is ideal for folks who have written at least a song or two before, or have plenty of experience singing and playing their instrument. The environment will support those newer to writing songs and those deep in the practice alike. Technical understandings of music theory will not be necessary.

This course will meet on zoom, and have a live-streamed zoom performance. You are encouraged to meet up with folks in the class who are local to you.



Terms we’ll play with:  point of view, melodic ingenuity, harmonic sensibilities and syntaxes, chord voicings, journaling, studying others’ lyrics, recognizing and generating patterns, using patterns to improvise, experimentalism, performance and embodied processes, accountability, renewal, creating freedom, “Being In Creation,” improvising full songs 

Pricing: Students self-determine the amount they pay for this class, based on a) the value they find in the class b) their means and access to money. Class size – and the amount of attention you receive – may factor into this as well. Students will be asked to pay up front, and will be given the opportunity to adjust the amount at the end of the course.